Key Concepts in Post-Reconstruction African American History and Southern Politics

Gradualism

Belief that social change, especially racial equality, should happen slowly over time rather than through immediate action.

Tuskegee Institute

Founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881 in Alabama; focused on vocational education for African Americans to promote self-reliance and economic progress.

Atlanta Compromise (1895)

Speech by Booker T. Washington urging Black Americans to accept segregation and focus on economic advancement rather than immediate civil rights.

Solid South

Term describing the South's consistent support for the Democratic Party after Reconstruction, maintaining white supremacy and resisting civil rights reforms.

Sharecropping

System where freedmen and poor whites farmed land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crops; often kept farmers in debt and poverty.

New South

Post-Civil War vision promoting industrial growth and modernization of the Southern economy while maintaining racial segregation.

Pittsburgh of the South

Nickname for Birmingham, Alabama, due to its booming steel and iron industry during the late 19th century.

National Banking Act (1863-64)

Created a system of national banks and a national currency to stabilize wartime finances during the Civil War.

Homestead Act (1862)

Gave 160 acres of public land to settlers who farmed it for five years, encouraging westward expansion.

Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)

Provided federal land to states to finance colleges specializing in agriculture and mechanical arts (A&M schools).

Bourbons/Redeemers

Conservative, pro-business Southern Democrats who regained power after Reconstruction and aimed to restore prewar social order.

Henry W. Grady

Journalist and orator who promoted the "New South" idea, encouraging industrialization and reconciliation with the North.

James B. Duke (American Tobacco Company)

Industrialist who dominated the tobacco industry through mass production and aggressive marketing.

Williams v. Mississippi (1898)

Upheld Mississippi's voting laws that effectively disenfranchised Black voters through poll taxes and literacy tests.

Civil Rights Cases of 1883

Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional, allowing private racial discrimination.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Law that banned racial discrimination in public accommodations; later overturned by the Supreme Court in 1883.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court case that established the "separate but equal" doctrine, legalizing racial segregation.

Cummings v. County Board of Education (1899)

Upheld racial segregation in public schools, extending Plessy v. Ferguson to education.

Lynching

Mob violence, often by hanging, used to terrorize and enforce racial control over Black Americans in the South.

W. E. B. Du Bois (The Souls of Black Folk)

Civil rights activist and scholar who argued for higher education, political action, and immediate equality for African Americans.

Niagara Movement (1905)

Group led by Du Bois demanding full civil liberties, end to racial discrimination, and recognition of human brotherhood; precursor to the NAACP.

NAACP (Founded 1909)

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; worked through courts and protests to fight segregation and discrimination.

Guinn v. United States (1915)

Supreme Court struck down Oklahoma's "grandfather clause" that had excluded Black voters.

Buchanan v. Worley (1917)

Supreme Court case that declared Louisville's residential segregation ordinance unconstitutional, a victory for the NAACP.